Training in Compassion 8: Turn Things Around

Where there's confusion or pain in your life, make use of it instead of trying to get rid of it. Trying to get rid of it usually doesn't work anyway. It only makes things worse. Of course, if your painful situation can be resolved somehow, resolve it. Otherwise, try accepting it and looking for the lesson it contains.

Whatever comes into our consciousness will spur a reaction in us, and this reaction will be one of these three: we will either like, dislike, or be neutral to the object. Greed, hate, and delusion are the emotional activities we indulge in response to liking, disliking and feeling neutral. We are greedy for what attracts us; we hate what repels us; we are confused or indifferent about neutral objects.

Turn things around" means turning the three reactions and the emotions that go with them into seeds of virtue. Things constantly arise, and we are constantly trying to grab them and make them stay or push them away as soon as possible, depending on the style of our reactivity and emotion. The flow of these objects and emotions goes on constantly, usually below the level of conscious awareness. Three seeds of virtue appear when turn around our standard reactions.

We don't have control of much, but we do have control of whether to turn around the greed, hate, and delusion that appears in our lives. The basic human mess of likes and dislikes, in which we seem to be trapped and which seems to be so dangerous and troublesome, is actually wonderful, a real treasure. Our messes and our problems are our treasures! Our suffering, our troubles, our problems, the things that we really don't like and want to get rid of but can't, or the losses we feel, the things we wanted to keep and sadly cannot -- all of this is a treasure to us if we can understand it in the right way.

Everything painful and difficult has the potential to bring us great joy and deep spiritual riches. We can turn toward and appreciate our suffering, our problems, and the suffering and problems of others. Turn things around means recognizing that our very likes and dislikes and the suffering they bring us, can be the source of spiritual growth.

So: try writing down "turn things around." Try to fix it in memory. When you find yourself annoyed or upset by instances of liking and disliking that are causing you suffering think: turn things around. This practice might help you to let go a little in that moment. Even if you don't believe it and are only a little intrigued by it, it can be helpful to practice this slogan. It will have the effect of causing you to stop your lamentation for a moment and recall that it might just be possible that there is something potentially good and positive in this agony in which you are right now enmeshed.

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For the full version of this post, SEE HERE.